adidas Uniforia Pro Football EK 2020

Product Information

Match balls can often be as closely associated with football tournaments as anything that happens on the pitch.

When designing an Official Match Ball, we always look to reflect culture; what is the spirit of the street that we can proudly showcase in the stadium," explained Anika Marie Kennaugh, Product Designer at adidas. "What we saw in our cities – all our key cities – is the need to come together and unite for change. As one of the major sporting events in the world, Euro 2020 is a great opportunity to proudly showcase the power of unity and to celebrate sport as a connector of people, ideas and creativity.”By 2016, when adidas launched the Beau Jeu, the official match ball for EURO 2016, after an 18-month testing period, top-of-the-range balls boasted six identical panels, thermally bonded to provide a seamless surface, and the promise of a predictable trajectory, better touch and low water uptake. Since 2006/07 there has been an official adidas match ball used at every UEFA Champions League fixture throughout the season. The Europa League also has its own specially designed ball, previously made by adidas but now produced by Molten since 2018. From a technology perspective, the Uniforia is effectively the same as recent FIFA World Cup models, offering the same high-performance structure and panel construction, but with a unique ‘Hi-White’ material – allowing for better visibility on the pitch for players. And that's that 'til the summer. The future promises further advancement. In late 2019, adidas confirmed its balls "delivered by the NASA-contracted SpaceX CRS-18 cargo mission earlier this year have been tested in a series of experiments aimed to extend understanding of flight characteristics beyond an Earth-based wind tunnel. Depth in spherical aerodynamics will enable more design freedom for panel shape and texture." At EUROs, the first truly significant design change since the 1980s came in 2004: this was the introduction of the first seamless ball, the Roteiro, for the finals in Portugal.

The World Cup in South Africa had plenty of memorable moments, but the much-derided Jabulani was something that everyone seemed keen to forget. From the Telstar in Mexico 1970 to the Fevernova of the 2002 World Cup, Adidas has created several classics over the years - as it is they, again, who have been given the nod to design the ball for the upcoming EURO 2020 tournament. The new model is absolutely inadequate and I think it’s shameful letting us play such an important competition, where a lot of champions take part, with a ball like this,” added Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon. What we saw in our cities – all our key cities – is the need to come together and unite for change. As one of the major sporting events in the world, UEFA EURO 2020 is a great opportunity to proudly showcase the power of unity and to celebrate sport as a connector of people, ideas and creativity." It was used at the 1968 European Championship before becoming the first adidas World Cup ball two years later at Mexico 1970. The model for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany featured the introduction of a Durlast polyurethane coating which provided waterproofing and helped maintain the ball's shape and resistance against abrasion.

Adidas Football Uniforia Euro 2020

adidas has revealed the official match ball for UEFA EURO 2020. Named after both the unity and the euphoria that top-level national-team competition can bring, the Uniforia ball is designed to celebrate the inclusiveness that next year's tournament will inspire throughout the continent. Winter', 'competition' and 'club' versions are all available too - but telling the difference between one and the other from photos alone isn't easy. The UEFA Champions League Star Ball appeared for the first time in 2001 – true to its name, it was adorned by eight stars, a design that has remained consistent through to 2020's unveiling of the Finale Istanbul. When I was a boy, the ball was like a treasure. The boy with the ball was the king of the playground." Unlike leather, polyurethane is flexible and does not stiffen in cold conditions. The 1984 European Championship in France was the first major tournament to showcase a wholly non-leather ball, and two years later, the first such synthetic World Cup ball – the Azteca México – was deployed at the finals.